Alessandra M. Passarotti, PhD

Research Assistant Professor in Psychiatry

Dr. Passarotti uses a congitive neuroscience approach and FMRI methods to examine the neurobiological mechanisms of cognitive and affective dysfunction in pediatric mental illness. She has worked both with healthy and clinical development populations such as children with Bipolar disorder, ADHD, Phenylketonuria, and Williams' syndrome. She has been funded by NARSAD, DBDAT Foundation and NIDA. She is head of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at the Institute of Juvenile Research. Her current projects examine impulsivity, cognitive control and reward processes, as they relate to executive functions, learning and substance abuse, in adolescents with Adolescent Bipolar disorder and adolescents with ADHD. She is also studying the potential of cognitive remediation as a tool to address some of the attention and working memory problems in PBD and ADHD.

Affiliations/Memberships:

Institute for Juvenile Research

Center for Cognitive Neuroscience

Interests:

Dr. Passarotti has worked both with healthy and clinical populations such as children with Bipolar disorder, ADHD, Phenylketonuria, and Williams’ syndrome. She is interested in developing neurocognitive models of child development. To this end, she uses cognitive and fMRI paradigms to address the fundamental question of how the child cognition and brain mature into an adult stage, and what are the neural bases of certain developmental syndromes.

Research Interests:

Neurobiological Models of Cognition and Affect toward Differentiating the Bio-signatures of PBD and ADHD. We are testing a neurobiological model on the neural mechanisms of cognitively-driven or emotionally-driven impulsivity to examine impulsivity, executive functions, and reward-related processes in children and adolescents with pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) and with ADHD, two developmental syndromes sharing symptoms of impulsivity, inattention, and poor behavioral control. This line of research has helped differentiating the intermediate neural phenotypes of ADHD and PBD with regard to impulsivity, working memory and affect. Stemming from previous studies, we are also investigating how we can better characterize ADHD comorbidity in PBD and remediate attention deficits that accompany severe emotional disturbance in these patients.

Reward Systems in Normally Developing Youth, in PBD and ADHD We are studying the behavioral and neurophysiological underpinnings of reward systems, which are fundamental for learning, self-control and executive functions, as they interact with cognitive and affective systems in normally developing youth as well as youth with ADHD and with PBD (with and without ADHD comorbidity). In particular we focus on investigating how altered reward systems may affect higher order cognitive processes such as decision-making, inhibition and self-regulation.

Adolescence, Pediatric Mental Illness, Reward systems and Drug abuse. Adolescence is a vulnerable time for developing drug addiction, and adolescents who suffer from bipolar disorder are at a particularly high risk. We study the mechanistic neuro-circuitry dysfunction associated with high comorbidity between ABD and SCU (significant cannabis use) using clinical, neurocognitive, and fMRI methods. We focus on a model of two brain circuits highly implicated in both drug abuse and bipolar disorder: the reward system and the self-control system. Findings from this study will provide insights on the neurobiological mechanisms related to altered reward sensitivity, drug abuse and deficient self-control in ABD, and more generally, in at risk adolescent population.

Cognitive Remediation and Training-related Neuroplasticity in PBD and ADHD. >We are conducting a cognitive/working memory (WM) intervention program to better understand how we can improve cognitive function at home and school in children with PBD and/or ADHD who experience significant attention and working memory deficits. Working Memory is a key component of learning and of executive regulatory functions. This study examines learning mechanisms and the potentials of WM and attention improvement through cognitive training. Moreover, we are documenting and assessing whether the cognitive remediation may lead to training-related improvements in neural functioning by conducting fMRI scans of brain function before and after the training.